~Ash's POV~

"And...go!"

I stood there, not knowing where to go. May and Drew went after Clemont and Iris, while Paul and Dawn chased them from behind. Gary and Misty started making their way towards us.

"Oh crap!" I began running away from them. I struggled to keep my pace, since it was hard to run in water.

Serena looked behind her and saw Misty reaching her hand out, getting ready to steal the ribbon tied around her head.

"Ash! Hurry up!" She tightened her grip on my hair.

"I-I'm trying!" I panted.

"Full speed ahead!" Gary exclaimed as he caught up to us.

Misty tried to grab the ribbon, but Serena moved her head away just in time. That was when Serena reached for one of Misty's ribbons. She attempted to pull it off, but lost grip.

"You can never take my ribbons!" Misty said.

"Just watch, I will!" She replied.

Just as Gary was about to tackle me from behind, Paul suddenly came out of nowhere. Dawn stole away one of Misty's ribbons, leaving them with two left.

"W-what?!" Misty exclaimed in shock.

Dawn smirked as she spun the ribbon around her finger. "Ha! Got one of em!"

"Erg, we're going to get you guys back!" Misty pointed her finger at them. "Go Gary! Chase after them!"

Paul began running away, after hearing what Misty said. Gary obeyed and left us for Paul and Dawn. "You're going down, periwinkle!" He shouted.

I sighed of relief. I honestly felt Gary was actually going to steal one of our ribbons. He may be stupid, but he was competitive.

"I think we should go after Clemont and Iris." I said as I examined the two. They seemed to be doing nothing, Clemont was just running aimlessly trying to avoid everyone.

"You sure? I feel Iris can be a tough one to steal ribbons from." Serena responded.

"But Clemont can't run. It doesn't take him too long to lose all his energy. I think that makes things a lot easier."

She nodded. "Okay! Let's do it!"

"Let's take them out at one try! Once we get close enough, take all the ribbons!"

I ran off towards Iris and Clemont. Iris was the first to notice us after them. She pounded on his head. "Clemont, Ash and Serena are coming! Hurry up!"

"Oh no!" Clemont gulped. "This is not gonna be good!"

"Pick up the pace! They are catching up!"

Clemont began to slow down. "I-I'm trying!" He panted as he spoke. "T-this is as fast I can go!"

"Ugh! We aren't getting anywere at this rate!"

As Iris was yelling at Clemont, she didn't realize that we were already right behind them. Serena swiped away the ribbon tied around Iris' head.

She turned around as she felt her head, to see if the ribbon was actually gone. And it was.

"No! Serena you give that back!" She cried.

She gave Iris and innocent smile. "Sorry, but I can't do that!"

Clemont has now stopped running, too tired to move any further. Iris shook his head. "Clemont! Get it together! We are going to lose! Hurry up and move!"

"Ash! Get to Clemont's left side!" Serena said.

I nodded. I didn't know what she was up to, but might as well just trust her. Clemont began to run away from us again, but I managed to keep up with his slow pace. I did what Serena said and moved to the left side of Clemont.

Iris looked at her in surprise. Next, Serena held her hand out for the ribbon around her leg. Iris attempted to dodge, but failed in doing so.

"C'mon! One more!!" I looked around Iris, trying to find where she put the last ribbon. I soon found it, around her other leg. I moved to the other side of Clemont. "Serena, there! The ribbon!"

Clemont couldn't take it anymore and gave up. "I-I can't run anymore...I'm sorry..." Clemont let go of Iris' legs and fell into the water, causing her to fall off his shoulders.

Serena grabbed the last ribbon just in time before Iris fell.

"Agghh!!" Iris shrieked as she plunged into the water.

Kenny squinted his eyes, making sure all of the ribbons were gone. He looked at Barry, who nodded, confirming it.

"Iris and Clemont are eliminated!" Kenny shouted as he put his hand up.

"Alright! We took one team out!" I cheered. "Good job, Serena!"

"Yeah! You too!"

The game went on for another 10 minutes. The majority of the teams have been eliminated. Serena and I are left and along with Gary and Misty. Both teams have two ribbons left. One of our ribbons got stolen by May and Drew, while Gary and Misty's were stolen by Dawn and Paul. This was it, whoever gets eliminated first loses.

"Serena, once I get to Gary I am going to have let go of you and use my hands to hold him off. Can you keep on without falling?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yeah! I'll do my best!"

"You're going down, Ashy!" Gary charged over towards us.

"Not in a million years!" I said as I began to run to him. I have gotten used to running in water, to it wasn't too hard anymore.

Gary and I made contact. Our hands collided, pushing eachother back. I tried my best to hold him off for Serena to steal the ribbons.

"Serena, why don't we do this the easy way and just hand me your ribbons?"

"No! Ash and I are not going to lose!"

Serena and Misty started throwing everything they got into eachother. It was hard for me to keep focused with Serena squirming like that. Her legs kept flinging everywhere, causing me to lose my balance at times.

"C'mon Misty! Take her ribbons!" Gary said as he used his hands to push me down.

"Shut up Gary! Everyone knows Serena will be the one to take the ribbons!" I replied.

"I won't allow her to! I will do everything to stop you!"

He charged forward at me. I managed to dodge his incoming tackle, causing him to slam against the side of the pool intstead.

"Ow..."

"Gary what the hell are you doing?! Get up!" Misty banged on his head.

Now was our chance. With Gary still feeling the effects of slamming into the side and Misty distracted, it would be a piece of cake to steal both ribbons.

I ran over to Gary. "Serena do it now! One's around her leg and the other's on her head!"

"Got it!" She reached out and successfully stole one ribbon.

As Misty turned around, Serena grabbed the last ribbon in the nick of time.

"No!" She cried.

Barry put his hand up. "Misty and Gary are eliminated! The winners are Ash and Serena!"

Misty crossed her arms. "Are you serious?!" She looked over at Gary, who has now recovered. "Gary! Why didn't you do anything?!"

Shivers went down his spine. "I-I'm sorry! The impact I had really hurt!"

"Alright! We won!" Serena cheered.

"Awesome!" I cheered along with her.

As we were celebrating, she somehow lost her balance and fell back. Oh, right. I wasn't holding her legs for support...ehehe, oops.

"Ahhh!" She shrieked as she fell towards the pool. Her leg got caught around my neck as she fell, causing me to go down with her.

"Agghhhh!" We plunged into the pool. I immidietely got up and began coughing. There was no time to hold my breath, the fall was so sudden.

Serena got up after me and coughed a few times as well. She than began giggling at what just happened. I nervously scratched my head as I laughed along with her.

The rest of the gang jumped into the water. Dawn began splashing water at Serena. "Water fight!!" She exclaimed.

"Hehe, cut it out, Dawn!"

As I watched the two girls, I suddenly got a face full of water. It turned out to be Misty.

"Hey! Stop acting like a perv and quit staring at them!" She said.

"Huh?!"

Gary smirked. "Yeah, Ashy. I even saw you drooling."

My cheeks shot pink. "I-I was not!"

"Aha! You're such a pervert!" Misty glared.

I facepalmed. "For the tenth time, I'm not a pervert!"

How long is Misty going to keep up this entire pervert thing? I swear everytime I see her, that's the first thing that comes out of her mouth.

"Haha, it's alright Ash. I believe you aren't a perv." Serena giggled.

"Thank you." I crossed my arms.

"Now let's have some fun!" She splashed water at me.

I wiped the water off my face. "N-no, I-I'm good..."

She splashed water on me once again. "C'mon, you party pooper!"

"Yeah Ash, go on! It's not too often you are able to do things like that with a cute girl. You do want that, right?" Gary

Serena began blushing. "H-huh?"

Now that I thought of it, she was cute. Like, really cute. Wait, what? What was I thinking just now? Looks like my mind was doing some stuff on it's own.

"I-It's nothing!" I waved my hands in front of me. "Just ignore him, Gary doesn't know what he's saying."

"O-okay..." She nodded.

"Now, where were we..." I put my finger up. "Oh, right!" I splashed water back at her.

She gets pushed back due to the impact of the water against her. "Ah, not too hard!"

I sweat dropped. "Ehehe, sorry!"

"So the water fight's back on?" Gary picked up his water gun.

I smiled. "You're on."

We spent the rest of the day having fun in the pool. The splashed until the sun went down. Other than almost being drowned by Gary, it was an amazing day.